Work Text
Toph is a part of the Avatar's little group, but she's not one of them yet. They all get along well, and the kid's excited to start earthbending, but he and the two Water Tribe kids have a history of shared experiences that she just… doesn't share. Yet.
That doesn't deter her, however. She's cool, she's awesome, she's the best earthbender in the world, and she has plenty of time to become entrenched in the group. They're practically destined to get into even more adventures than before - it's one of the reasons she joined them, after all.
But, for now, she's stuck on the edge of inside jokes she doesn't get and anecdotes she doesn't remember.
Her main issue right now is their travel. Appa is great at covering long distances quickly, and she gets how important that is, but she most certainly does not appreciate being so far away from her beloved ground. It reminds her of when she was young, before the badgermoles - a time she does not want to think about. She remembers the complete emptiness, the smells and sounds that hover around her, unable to place their location or even discern what they are. All she gets on Appa is disjointed senses. Voices on one side of her, a brush of feathers against her arm on the other. She can’t place any of it, and it scares her, despite how she tries to hide her fears.
When they finally land, Toph leaps excitedly off Appa, stretching out her feet in anticipation and softening the ground to soften her fall.
Ah, dirt
.
She hears Aang before she feels him. He’s difficult to find sometimes, always bouncing around or using that air scooter of his. He laughs as he zooms by her, and she feels his wingtip brush her face.
“Watch it, Twinkletoes!” she calls after him. At least she hopes it’s after him; her seismic sense is fantastic but she still finds herself missing people by a few inches or so, and that’s just when the people in question are solidly on the ground.
Katara starts setting up the tent, and Sokka rummages through their supplies. “Guys, I think we’re going to need some more food soon,” he says.
“We can rest here for the night and then you and Aang can head out tomorrow morning,” Katara suggests.
“Oh, let me come with,” Toph pipes up. “Maybe while we’re out I can get a feel for Aang’s earthbending, or -”
She obviously can’t see when it happens, but there’s a distinctive feeling she gets when people look at each other and do that stupid communicating with their eyes thing. It’s a combination of shifting wings, sped up heartbeats, and a certain kind of silence, and she finds it incredibly rude.
“What?” she demands, crossing her arms. Her wings flare out in defense.
“Um,” Sokka starts, then shifts quickly. She guesses he’s looking back and forth between Katara and Aang for support.
He gets none. Toph’s wings arch and her eyebrows come together in frustration.
“You can take a look at Aang’s earthbending once we’ve got the food taken care of,” Katara jumps in to ease the tension.
Toph doesn’t really get why she can’t go, but whatever.
A small part of her tells her it’s because she’s not in the group yet, but she quashes it. She’s better than that, they’re all better than that.
Toph
sleeps in the next morning. If she's being left behind, might as well make the most of it. They're just getting food, a necessity, it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things and there's always next time. Aang and Sokka are already gone when she wakes up, but they return not too long after. After eating some of the vegetables they’ve gathered, she stands up and clasps her hands together. “Twinkletoes,” she says, grinning at his approximate direction, “it’s time.”
She leads him out of the clearing where their campsite lies and to the gentle cliffside she’d sensed when they landed the night before. She spreads her arms, then extends her wings to their full length for emphasis. “Let’s get some earthbending done!”
She sets Aang on some simple, basic forms, and watches him struggle. Katara joins her after a while. She seems a little worried about Aang, but sits down to watch and doesn’t interfere, which Toph appreciates. Her methods might be unorthodox, sure, but Aang is in safe hands. She’s the greatest earthbender in the world - her student might get a bit bumped around, but such is the nature of earth, and he’s in no real danger with her here to watch him.
“Keep your wings in!” Toph calls out when she loses sense of him once too often - clearly he’s flitting around her boulders like the airbender he is and
not
staying firm and steady like he needs to be.
“It’s interesting that earthbenders’ wings can get so big when you guys don’t use them as much,” Katara muses.
Toph flexes her wings, confused. They’re not huge, but they’re a good size for her body, and can carry her weight just fine - probably. She’s - she’s not sure how other peoples’ wings compare, actually. Her seismic sense can tell her a person’s approximate size and, more clearly, location. She can’t quite tell where a person’s body ends and their wings begin. How big are peoples’ wings usually?
“Aang says airbenders have smaller wings since they use airbending with their flying,” Katara goes on. “I would’ve thought earthbenders had smaller wings, too, since your element is - well, the opposite of air. But there’s lots of earthbenders around with big wings.”
Katara shifts, and Toph gets the feeling she’s taken her eyes off Aang. “Yours are twice Aang’s size even though you’re the same height.”
Huh, that is pretty interesting. But, “We do fly, you know,” Toph says. “We like being on the ground, sure, it’s our element. But we do fly. It’s - you know how the sky is. Even we belong there, no matter how contradictory it sounds. The earth is our home, but we’re still pulled to the sky. I guess the difference is we’re okay going without flying sometimes, if we have to.”
Toph isn’t quite sure why she included herself in the 'we' in her explanation. Her last sentence rings true in ways she doesn’t like to think on.
Katara hums, satisfied for now, and shifts again, probably back to focusing on Aang. Who is clearly taking advantage of her temporary distraction to get some flying in. Nice try, Twinkletoes, but this is
earth
bending. A well-aimed rock sends him back to the earth and training continues in earnest.
When Toph wakes up the next morning, Sokka and Aang are gone again. They clearly don’t need food this time, so why -
Katara is still here, and Toph leaves her earth tent to sit by her at the fire, a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“Where’s Snoozles and Twinkletoes?” she asks, keeping her tone light.
Katara shifts. “Um - looking for food?”
Toph doesn’t need her seismic sense to tell she’s lying. “They did that yesterday. How much food do we need in one go? Really. Where did they go?” She almost dreads the answer, but she needs to know.
Katara heaves a deep sigh. One of her wings shifts to gently brush against Toph’s shoulder which is likely meant to be a comforting touch but it makes her stomach sink even more.
“They’re going for a flight,” Katara says softly, sadly.
Toph expected this, but she still feels the familiar burn of jealousy and the feeling of being left out. This is just like back home, but these people are supposed to be her friends! They understand her, they get that she’s amazing and capable even without her sight, and yet. And yet they went and did exactly what everyone
always
did back at her parents’. Everyone else got to go for a flight, to taste the sky that calls to all of them, to spread their wings and soar. But oh, no, not the little blind girl, she’d just get hurt. She’d thought things would be different here. Apparently she’s wrong.
“Why didn’t you go with them?” She asks instead of saying anything she’s really thinking.
“I - I wanted to stay with you,” Katara replies, suddenly unsure.
Toph clenches her toes in the dirt, grounding herself in her element. Katara’s her friend, she was just being nice, Katara understands that she can see using the earth, they all do -
But the earth is different from the air. She knows that, everyone knows that. She uses the earth to see, but in the air she’d be blind. Her parents had never known about her seismic sense, but in regards to flying, they’d been right.
She tries to tell herself that won’t stop her. She’s Toph Beifong, the greatest earthbender in the world.
But… the earth is not the air.
She takes a deep breath and looks up at the sky. She can get by because she’s one with the earth, but she feels the old ache of her wings itching to spread and to
fly
.
Her parents had kept her from many things, but this one was the most painful. And now her new friends are trying to do the same. Well, she won’t stand for it, not anymore. She’s started a new, freer life here, and that means she’s going to do whatever she sets her mind to. She’s surrounded by friends - friends she grows closer to by the day. Flying together is one of the purest expressions of companionship - it’s probably why Aang and Sokka are out doing it now, and why Katara is so unsure. The Water Tribe girl had clearly wanted to fly with the others, but had worried about poor Toph, left behind.
It cuts the group in half, basically. Fractures them in two. And it's because of her; Katara could easily join them the next time this happens. And she's sure there will be a next time. The sky calls to them all, after all. And when that time rolls around, she'll be left on her own. Left behind.
If she never flies with the group, she will never be truly part of the group, no matter how much time she gives their friendship to develop. She knows what she has to do.
“Next time I want to go for a flight with you all,” Toph declares.
“Um -” Katara is clearly surprised. “Are you sure? Uh, I mean - I get that you’re capable, but, uh -”
“I -” Toph takes a deep breath. She hates to admit any weakness, but there’s no getting around this. “My parents never let me fly. It - I was able to get through it because I’m an earthbender, and, like I told you, we can survive on the ground, but it still hurt. Not just being kept from the sky, but also - being left behind. Like this. When everyone else I knew got to fly together, I had to stay on the ground. And, as much as I
love
the ground, I hated that.”
Katara shifts and Toph can’t tell what she’s feeling. Now more than ever, she wishes she could somehow sense a person’s emotions. Is Katara feeling pity? Is she feeling guilty? Is she feeling sorry for Toph? She wants none of that.
“I want you to teach me,” Toph says as the silence grows too long, too tense. “Just the basics, I can figure out the rest on my own. And - and then I want to join you in flights. I want to be -
really
be - part of your group.”
“Of course I’ll teach you,” Katara says, though she still sounds unsure. “I taught the kids back home, I like to think I’m a good teacher.” She chuckles, and it’s only a little strained. “Aang would probably back me up on that, too.”
Toph smiles, and it’s gentler than her usual. She’ll allow Katara to see this moment of softness, but just this once. Once she gets the hang of flying, she’ll kick all their butts, on the ground
and
in the air. Just like things should be.
Katara instructs her to extend her wings, and she hears a rustle as the other girl apparently does the same. “Your wings are very pretty,” she says.
“Thanks,” Toph replies, then, “Yours too.”
Katara manages to catch herself halfway through the first syllable of “thanks”. She’s a smart one. Thankfully, Toph knows Sokka will always be there to slip up.
“We’ll start with a few movements on the ground first,” Katara says, and just like that, Toph is finally learning how to fly.
The next day, she’s awoken by Katara. Sokka and Aang are, for once, still in the camp. They’re standing, somewhat tense but not worried, and she guesses they’re ready for takeoff. She feels the air move near her as Katara extends her own wings. Toph takes a deep breath, sets a grin onto her face, and extends her own wings. Aang and Sokka flap hard, taking off from a standstill with powerful strokes - or just cheating and airbending, in Aang’s case. Katara gently nudges her with a wingtip and the two of them take off into a run.
Toph flaps gently, as Katara had taught her, and she feels the wind flow through her feathers, faster and faster until - there. Her wings catch the current and suddenly her feet leave the ground.
All of a sudden, she’s plunged back into total blackness, and for a second she falters, missing the dependable earth. It’s like she’s on Appa, but instead of a firm bison beneath her, there’s nothing, just air.
But she feels a brush of wind as Katara gently asks if she’s okay, and she realizes it’s not like Appa, not really. Her seismic sense is gone, sure, but she can still
feel
. The wind cuts through her feathers and she can feel the current flowing, can feel it beneath her, supporting her, can even feel where the current breaks, though the sense is faint. She feels the current shift near her left wing and angles herself to accommodate, and manages to catch an updraft that launches her farther away from the ground. Her wings feel an obstacle nearby, an unnatural curve in the current, and she hears Sokka’s voice from that direction.
She feels elated. She feels freer than she has in - in ever. She reaches out her hands, stretches out her wings, and
touches
the sky.
She lets out a laugh and falls into Sokka’s wake as the Water Tribe boy angles away from the campsite. She feels the air shift as Aang uses his bending to propel himself to the front of the messy line, and hears Katara chuckle as she makes up the rear.
The four of them glide and swoop through the sky, and Toph finally, finally,
finally
feels like she’s become part of the group.
The flight isn’t too long, and not too exciting, either, as all of them are clearly worried about Toph despite the fact she’s doing fantastic, and they soon return to the campsite. Toph feels the earth growing closer beneath her, and lands gratefully. As much as she’d loved flying, this is her element, her home. She flops gratefully onto her stomach, her wings laying flat, tired by their recent use.
“Hey, Toph,” Aang says, bouncing over. “Next time we fly I’ll show you how to do loops!”
Katara cries “No!” from the other side of the site at the same time that Toph grins widely and cries “Yes!”